DECOYS IN NORFOLK, 171 



time peacefully in happy unconsciousness of the 

 slaughter which may be going on within a few yards. 

 It must be remembered the number killed in any decoy 

 is seldom more than a tithe of that frequenting the pond, 

 and doubtless the quiet which all sorts of fowl enjoyed 

 in the precincts of the decoy-pond at a time when the 

 gun was used indiscriminately at all seasons of the 

 year, and when the shooting of breeding ducks was 

 thought no sin, has resulted in saving yet a remnant of 

 home-bred birds to continue their race in the happier 

 times which have succeeded. Since the passing of the 

 Wild Fowl Act, and the imposition of the not less 

 salutary licence on guns, the quantity of ducks, both of 

 species and individuals, breeding in Norfolk, has in- 

 creased surprisingly, and some species of marsh-breeding 

 birds have responded to the protection afforded them in 

 a manner most encouraging to those who have been wise 

 enough to shelter them. 



Norfolk is still the land of decoys. It has at present 

 time seven active decoys, including those in the district 

 known as Lothingland, which, for ornithological purposes, 

 must be taken as belonging to this county, although 

 politically it is assigned to Suffolk, viz., one at 

 Southacre, on Mr. Fountaine's estate ; one at West- 

 wick, belonging to Mrs. Petre ; a third at Wretham ; 

 another at Didlington, the seat of Mr. W. A. Tyssen 

 Amherst, M.P. ; a recently constructed one at Merton, 

 on Lord Walsingham's estate ; and two others on the 

 lake at Fritton. 



There are also twenty-four decoys which have 

 become disused in more or less recent times. These were 

 situated at Winterton, Waxham, Ran worth, Mautby, 

 Acle, Woodbastwick, Hemsby, Gunton, Cawston Wood- 

 row, Wolverton, Hillington, Hempstead, Langham 

 (worked by the celebrated nautical novelist. Captain 

 Marry att), Holkham, Dersingham, Wormegay, Narford, 

 Stow Bardolph, Hilgay, Northwold, Hockwold, Laken- 

 heath (on the Suffolk side of the boundary river), Bes- 

 thorpe, and Flixton, near Lowestoft, surely a goodly 

 array for one county and its immediate vicinity. 



Some of these decoys have been in times past very 

 productive, and even now in favourable seasons the 

 t2 



